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Get On Board The Spaceship Box

Something interesting happened the other day. I was asked my opinion on why I liked this “cider” so much. I scrambled to give a proper description. So here we are, challenge accepted. Let’s start off with a thought. “Hard” or “craft” cider is to craft beer what craft beer is to macro beer such as Coors and Budweiser: its following is misunderstood, underappreciated and supported by relatively few. The phenomenon that is the craft beverage world from beer, cider, wine, mead, spirits and even sodas is quite intriguing. There’s a time and place for everything and a niche for each to thrive. However, not all seem to be on board. Not every fan of one option supports the other and that’s okay. We can’t like everything.

Enter cider. For some it’s “too sweet” while for others it’s “too dry”. Depending on which part of the country or world you live you might not be overly familiar that there are in fact “cider houses” in the same way there are craft breweries.

Superstition Meadery, producers of some of the highest rated and most sought-after meads in the world, sits proudly in Northern Arizona. You read that right. Mead, the ancient drink of Vikings and Gods. This coveted drink is so popular and clamored-for that devotees will drive across state lines and begin waiting in line hours before the sun rises just to get their hands on this incredible product. But did you know that Superstition Meadery produces the world’s highest rated cider?

The Nose:
Close your eyes and you can smell the undeniable presence of apples with some berry in the background.

The Look:
A deep, dark purple with a reddish hue when held to the light.

The Taste:
Sweet and slightly tart upfront, the apple flavor is almost like the tart of green apples and the blueberry gives off almost a purple grape-like finish, crisp and very much like drinking the best adult juice you can imagine.

The Mouthfeel:
Light and easy drinking with a medium body.

The Barrel:
Just my opinion but oak makes everything better. It’s presence is subtle but definitely gives a mild earthiness to it on the long aftertaste.

Conclusion:
This is not “typical” or “traditional” cider. I would imagine you’d almost have to be a wine appreciator of some kind to truly get this. That is if you like sweet wine you would definitely love this. But if you love cider you might not necessarily be into it because it’s something truly unique.

It’s a very amazing product because it’s hard to understand. Why did a meadery produce a cider? I’m not opposed to it but it’s just the same as a brewery producing a wine. Again that’s fine but I’m just curious. To take it a step further it is interesting to note that people who say they don’t drink cider because it’s too sweet have also praised how amazing this is. They are not wrong but I would sincerely hope that’s their honest personal opinion and not the hype train talking. In the end drink what makes you happy. I’m getting more of this gem for sure.